European aerospace giant Airbus on Friday ordered immediate software changes to a large number of its A320 family jets following an incident last month.
airbus said in a statement A recent incident has shown that intense solar radiation can corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
According to Reuters, the incident that brought the issue to light is related to a JetBlue flight from Cancún, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey on October 30.
That flight had to make an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, and several people were taken to the hospital after a flight control problem and a sudden uncontrolled drop in altitude.
Airbus says action could cause delays to busy weekend travel
“Airbus has identified a large number of A320 family aircraft currently in service that may be impacted,” the company said.
“Airbus recognizes that these recommendations will cause operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” the statement said.
Industry sources said the scale of the operation is expected to cause significant disruption to the entire A320 jet fleet, which consists of about 6,000 jets.
Hardware on hundreds of jets may also have to be replaced, which could take several weeks.
The disruption comes as millions of Americans travel on airlines for the Thanksgiving holiday period.
EDirected by: Dmytro Lyubenko